Breaking:
Iran Captures US Drone In Its
Airspace 04 Dec 2012 Iran has "captured" a US
drone gathering intelligence over Gulf waters after it
entered its airspace, state media has reported. The report
quoted the Revolutionary Guard's navy chief General Ali
Fadavi on the "intruding" [aka illegally spying] ScanEagle
drone, but offered no precise details on the location or how
it had been seized by the Guards' naval unit.

US boosts number of spy drone flights over
Iran [Oh dear. Looks like one just came to a bad ending.] 03 Dec 2012
Heightened concerns over Iran's potential development of a
nuclear weapon have prompted the United States to increase
its surveillance efforts overseas in the past two months, a
new report claims. The Wall Street Journal alleges this week
that the US has ramped-up its number of spy drone missions
over the Bushehr nuclear reactor ever since fuel rods were
unexpectedly discharged from the facility in October, just
two months after the facility became fully operational. The
US has long voiced concern over the possible procurement of
a nuclear warhead by Iranians, but surveillance has
increased significantly in the weeks following the recent
discovery of spent fuel rods, US officials confirm on
condition of anonymity.

Two plead guilty in plot to ship aircraft to
Iran --Prosecutors: None of the parts or aircraft was
intended for military 03 Dec 2012 An Iranian
national and an American citizen who worked as an airline
pilot pleaded guilty Monday in a plot to ship helicopters
and aircraft parts for Iran's state-run civilian airline, in
violation of the [insane] U.S. trade embargo. Their scheme,
hatched in 2007 and continued until 2011, was foiled before
the defendants made any deliveries, federal authorities
said. The men had hoped to make millions by selling the
parts to Iran Air, which is owned by the Iranian government,
authorities said. Several of Iran Air's planes are made by
U.S.-based Boeing, according to the airline's
website.

Obama warns Syria amid rising concern over
chemical weapons [LOL! I didn't think USociopaths would
dare dip from the 'chemical weapons' well so soon after the
Iraq disaster, but alas alak -- I was wrong.] 03
Dec 2012 President Obama warned Syria on Monday that
deploying chemical weapons is "totally unacceptable," after
what U.S. officials said were new intelligence reports that
the Damascus government is preparing such munitions for
possible use. Obama told the government of President Bashar
al-Assad that "there will be consequences, and you will be
held accountable" if it used any part of its stockpile of
chemical weapons, including sarin gas, the deadly nerve
agent. A U.S. intelligence official said "we have pretty
good visibility" into Syria's depots, and a second U.S.
official said intelligence gathered in recent days has
raised alarms.

After UN vote, Israel to suspend PA
funds --PM Netanyahu: We'll continue building in
Jerusalem 02 Dec 2012 Israeli government continues
to punish Palestinians over UN bid: Finance Minister Yuval
Steinitz stated Sunday morning that he would not transfer
the tax payments collected on behalf of the Palestinian
Authority this month. The move followed the approval of
3,000 new housing units beyond the Green Line and the
furthering of planning procedures in the area connecting
Jerusalem and the town of Ma'aleh Adumim that could prevent
the creation of a contiguous Palestinian state.

Kissinger and the secret spy network of
former Gestapo and S.S. men 'who plotted to overthrow West
German government' 03 Dec 2012 A German
academic has unearthed evidence showing former U.S.
Secretary of State [terrorist] Henry Kissinger once
discussed a coup with disgruntled Nazis to overthrow the
West German government in the 1970s. Kissinger and Richard
Nixon were aggrieved at the left-leaning government of the
day's burgeoning friendship with the hardline East German
government. Kissinger became the contact man for a secret
spy network made up of old Nazis and elite aristocrats aimed
at torpedoing the plans formulated by Chancellor Willy
Brandt. The treasurer of the group was Alfred Seidl, a
former Nazi who acted as the chief defence lawyer for Hitler
deputy Rudolf Hess.

Heads up! Let's hope they
don't 'go live,' as they did on 9/11. NORAD to Conduct Air Defense Exercise in
National Capital Region 03 Dec 2012 The North
American Aerospace Defense Command and its geographical
component, the Continental United States NORAD Region
(CONR), announced today that they will conduct an air
defense exercise in the National Capital Region (NCR),
between midnight and 2 a.m., beginning on Dec. 4 and
concluding early Thursday. The exercise is comprised of a
series of training flights held in coordination with the
Federal Aviation Administration, the National Capital Region
Coordination Center, the Joint Air Defense Operations Center
(JADOC), the Civil Air Patrol, U.S. Coast Guard and CONR's
Eastern and Western Air Defense Sectors. Exercise Falcon
Virgo is designed to hone NORAD's intercept and
identification operations as well as to operationally test
the NCR Visual Warning System and to certify newly assigned
Command and Control personnel at JADOC [as well as
to operationally test their ability to carry out the next
false flag].

DIA sending hundreds more spies
overseas 01 Dec 2012 The Pentagon will send
hundreds of additional spies overseas as part of an
ambitious plan to assemble an espionage network that rivals
the CIA in size, U.S. officials said. The project is aimed
at transforming the Defense Intelligence Agency, which has
been dominated for the past decade by the demands of two
wars, into a spy service focused on emerging threats and
more closely aligned with the CIA and elite military
commando units. When the expansion is complete, the DIA is
expected to have as many as 1,600 "collectors" in positions
around the world, an unprecedented total for an agency whose
presence abroad numbered in the triple digits in recent
years.

Revealed: Pentagon gets *110 million for
secret 'Plan X' cyberwar plans --Experts say 'Plan X'
could range from taking out power grids to disabling a
pacemaker in an enemy combatant. [Hopefully, Anonymous will
develop a 'Plan X' of its own.] 01 Dec 2012 The
Pentagon is hoping that new efforts to reach out to the
private sector will help upgrade its military force to be
better prepared to fight in the digital age. The new
program, dubbed Plan X, hopes to facilitate the development
of new technologies that will allow the military to
'dominate the cyber battlespace,' while simultaneously
implementing a clearer strategy for using cyberattacks. Plan
X has already received *110 million in funding for the next
five years, which it hopes to dole out in military contracts
to researchers around the country.

Cops to Congress: We need logs of Americans'
text messages 03 Dec 2012 AT&T, Verizon
Wireless, Sprint, and other wireless providers would be
required to record and store information about Americans'
private text messages for at least two years, according to a
proposal that police have submitted to the U.S. Congress.
CNET has learned a constellation of law enforcement groups
has asked the U.S. Senate to require that wireless companies
retain that information, warning that
the lack of a current federal requirement "can hinder law
enforcement investigations." They want an SMS retention
requirement to be "considered" during congressional discussions over updating a 1986 privacy law for the
cloud computing era -- a move that could complicate debate
over the measure and erode support for it among civil
libertarians.

Police Can Access Your Email Without a
Warrant If It's 180 Days Old 30 Nov 2012 When
retired four-star general and former CIA Director David
Petraeus resigned from his post this month after admitting
to an extramarital affair, one of the more startling
revelations was that the dalliance was discovered when the
FBI sifted through his private Gmail account. The spy chief
had been out-spied. More alarming is that the average
American could easily be subjected to the same snooping that
Petraeus endured. According to current law, police can
access email through a provider, like Yahoo or Gmail,
without a warrant if the message is more than 180 days
old.

GSA proposes trading Hoover Building for new
FBI campus 03 Dec 2012 The Federal Bureau of
Investigation would move out of the J. Edgar Hoover Building on Pennsylvania
Avenue and relocate to a new Washington-area campus facility
under a plan the General Services Administration released
Monday. The GSA, under a directive from President Obama to
reduce the footprint and costs of its real estate, outlined
the proposal as it launched a search for private development
partners for two major parcels of federal land in downtown
Washington. One is the Hoover building on Pennsylvania
Avenue.

Sen. Lindsey Graham calls Guantanamo Bay
detainees 'crazy bastards' [Hello, Pot? This is
Kettle.] 30 Nov 2012 Sen. Lindsey Graham charged
Thursday that Guantanamo Bay is full of "crazy bastards" who
should not be brought to the United States. "Simply stated,
the American people don't want to close Guantanamo Bay,
which is an isolated, military-controlled facility, to bring
these crazy bastards that want to kill us all to the United
States," the Republican senator [sociopath] from South
Carolina said in a floor speech. His comments came during a
Senate debate concerning the detention facility in
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Manning lawyer: Military actions
'criminal'--Manning was usually kept in his cell between
21 and 23 hours each day, according to testimony at a recent
court hearing on his detention. 03 Dec 2012
Military commanders committed a crime by keeping Bradley
Manning in unnecessarily strict conditions at a Marine Corps
brig for nearly nine months, the alleged WikiLeaks source's
defense attorney charged Monday in his first public speech
about his client's case. "Brad's treatment at Quantico will
forever be etched in our nation's history as a disgraceful
moment in time," David Coombs told about 100 Manning
supporters at a Washington, D.C., church Monday night. "Not
only was it stupid and counterproductive -- it was
criminal."

Two Years of Cablegate as Bradley Manning
Testifies for the First Time by Julian Assange
29 Nov 2012 For years, WikiLeaks faced a chorus of
accusations by U.S. officials and right-wing pundits of
making the world a less-safe place, and of having
potentially caused harm through publication of embarrassing
secrets. In reality, the cables show that torture and
killing are not isolated events, but the violent
manifestations of an aggressive policy of coercion used by
the United States in the pursuit of its strategic commercial
and political goals around the world. While U.S. law bans
the training of military units with a history of human
rights violations, in practice the law is easily and often
circumvented... A diplomatic cable from November 2009 mentions as a side note that
right-wing paramilitaries in Colombia were
responsible for the death of 257,089 victims, a figure well
above the estimations of local human rights activists. The
U.S. has nonetheless offered generous support to the
Colombian military; Amnesty International, which has called
for a complete cut-off of U.S. military aid to
Colombia, has estimated that total U.S. aid in 2006
amounted to *728 million, of which 80 percent was given to
military and police assistance. As of 2012, U.S.
military support to Colombia is ongoing.

Global Powers Work to Break Environmental
Solidarity, and to Exploit 'Opportunities' of Climate
Change by Julian Assange 29 Nov 2012 On
environmental issues, cables show that the U.S. routinely
makes symbolic gestures rather than initiating substantial
practices to combat climate change [global warming], and
works aggressively to tailor international agreements to its
own commercial interests... In a visit to Canada in 2009 David Goldwyn, the State Department's
Coordinator for International Energy Affairs discussed
public relations assistance to be offered to the oil sands
industry. Goldwyn proposed consulting experts, scholars and
think tanks to "increase visibility and accessibility of
more positive news stories." The cable was later used by
environmentalists in their battle against the Keystone XL
pipeline, which ships crude oil across the U.S.-Canada
border. In early 2012, President Obama rejected the Keystone XL pipeline
proposal, but recently publicly announced support for
another proposal. It also turns out that Goldwyn
eventually went on to work for Sutherland, a lobbying group
in favor of Keystone XL.The cables also reveal that the U.S. is carefully
positioning itself to take advantage of new opportunities
for harvesting hydrocarbons and minerals from the Arctic as
climate change melts polar ice.

Greenland and Antarctica 'have lost four
trillion tonnes of ice' in 20 years --Landmark study
finds melting polar ice has led to 11mm rise in sea level
--Greenland losing ice five times faster than early
1990s 29 Nov 2012 More than 4 trillion tonnes of
ice from Greenland and Antarctica has melted in the past 20
years and flowed into the oceans, pushing up sea levels,
according to a study that provides the best measure to date
of the effect climate change global warming is having on the
earth's biggest ice sheets. The research involved dozens of
scientists and 10 satellite missions and presents a
disturbing picture of the impact of recent warming at the
poles. The scientists claim the study, published in the journal Science,
ends a long-running debate over whether the vast ice sheet
covering the Antarctic continent is losing or gaining
mass.

43 students taken to hospital in carbon
monoxide scare 03 Dec 2012 Police and rescue
crews rushed to Finch Elementary School in southwest Atlanta
on Monday morning, where at least 49 people were overcome by
carbon monoxide fumes. The reports came in to 911 at about
8:35 a.m. Fire crews said when they arrived at the school in
the Oakland City area, at least six people had been overcome
by the fumes.

Boehner, House GOP leaders: Raise Medicare
eligibility age, cut Social Security, slash taxes on
wealthy [And, the PentaPost, ever the faithful servant
of the GOP, Wall Street, and the Drone -- buried these
salient points in paragraphs *eight and nine* of their
'article.'] 03 Dec 2012 The [GOP] proposal... would
push the top rate below the current level of 35 percent and
raise c*sh by wiping out loopholes and deductions. The plan
also seeks *600 billion in health savings. One option, GOP
aides said, would be raising the Medicare eligibility age
from 65 to 67. And it would save *200 billion by applying
a(n) less generous austerity measure of inflation government
wide, including to Social Security benefits, which would
rise more slowly as a result. The GOP plan also seeks
another *300 billion in cuts to agency budgets on top of the
*1 trillion in cuts already enacted. [Oh, but
there's a spare *100 million to build an Air Force facility in Tel Aviv,
though, right? Start reading.]

Corporate profits hit record as wages get
squeezed 03 Dec 2012 Just four years after the
worst shock to the economy since the Great Depression, U.S.
corporate profits are stronger than ever. In the third
quarter, corporate earnings were *1.75 trillion, up 18.6%
from a year ago, according to last week's gross domestic
product report. That took after-tax profits to
their greatest percentage of GDP in history. But the record
profits come at the same time that workers' w*ges have fallen to their
lowest-ever share of GDP.

Mitt Romney rejoins Marriott
board 03 Dec 2012 Former presidential candidate
and Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney is rejoining Marriott
International's board of directors. He's held the post with
the hotel chain twice before. The first time was from 1993
to 2002, when he left to campaign for governor of
Massachusetts, and from 2009 to 2011, when he left to start
his campaign for the presidency. It's the first job
announcement Romney has made since he lost the November
election to President Barack Obama.

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